Disaster Blaster

This game was an unexpected surprise. Ever since I discovered it, it’s sucked me into a vortex I’ve found really hard to escape from. It’s a roguelite deck builder where you have to manage the cards the game gives you to create the strongest weapon possible, so you can clear each level of enemies and blow up the planet they live on. It’s a weird but awesome mix between Balatro, Vampire Survivors, and Slay the Spire. All of this wrapped in a psychedelic pixel art style where you can destroy everything, backed by a totally bonkers soundtrack. The gameplay is super simple to pick up, but figuring out the strongest builds takes a good amount of thought and strategy, same goes for picking the right character for each level. On hard mode, hardcore players will definitely get their fix! I’d honestly recommend it to everyone, and I really hope more people get the chance to play it so it doesn’t stay hidden in the shadows!

Great fun. It's visually insane! It's fun building the gun and figuring out the different impacts the cards have and how ordering them impacts the overall gun score. I especially chuckled when I chose to place a card in a particular spot and the gone score displayed "really?" If you like "number go up games" you'll dig this. The music is also very "unique"!

surprisingly involved gameplay, very fun to find strategies that aren't just number go up, as well

This game is pretty fun! It is in the same vein as Balatro and Nubby's Number Factory in that its a 'number-go-up' roguelike. Its simple and very hands-off, but still entertaining. Plus a soundtrack that is hilarious (to me), a bit annoying, and enjoyable all at the same time. 4.5/5

i can't stop playing this game! It's crazy how much fun it is. You can create tons of different combinations with type of cards and build your blaster exactly the way you want. I'm a big fan of roguelike games like The binding of Isaac, Vampire Survivors and others, fi you enjoy those too, i definitely recommend giving this one a try. It'll keep you glued to the screen for hours without even realizing it. My blaster deals "Really" damage... what about yours?

Phew. Okay. Let me start with the things I liked most and work my way down. Concept: You are modifying a blaster that iterates through 6 modules from left to right to determine the kind of projectile it will fire when it's done. Modular weapons are always cool; Noita's wand system is easily one of its highlights. What's more, having a system where the modules have to be resolved in order instead of just contributing to a numeric cooldown total is Good Design which allows for fun considerations with regards to how long the blaster spends looping back on its cards to power up between firing each shot. Music: Upbeat, catchy bops. I especially liked the ones that play at the start of the bunny, icy, and ninja planets. Presentation: Here's where I start to get conflicted. The sprite work is solid, and some of the stage backdrops are actually fantastic. But the way these assets are rendered and melded together is headache-inducing. I am someone who really likes a good retro aesthetic, so it hurts me [i]in my soul[/i] when you don't work within a consistent virtual resolution and instead just bloat every lovingly-made sprite up to varying pixel sizes. It's also painful to see grayscale-tinted sprites instead of proper color palettes chosen for contrast with the environment. I understand that most of this stuff is just technically expedient, but I don't have to like it. I'm also not a fan of CRT filters and the like, so I personally feel like performance mode is a visual improvement. Gameplay: The meat of this game is comparable to trying to understand the finer workings of a slot machine just by playing it. I don't just mean with how much information the game withholds from you, (which I infer is intentional) but with the way everything moves being so erratic that it practically never translates into meaningful feedback about the effectiveness of my blaster. All I really know after 10 hours with the game is that you put a speedup card in the first slot and then pray. And the more cards you unlock, the more you're going to be saddled with ones you know you don't want, like the one that makes your bullets attract enemies (in most cases this will just kill you) or several ones that only give you extra points. Pins which make specific cards more likely do not even begin to make up for this, so the game seems to just get more difficult (if you can call this difficulty) the more you unlock. And when you do finally make a blaster that seems to be working just fine, some enemy will still manage to ram you at light speed from out of nowhere and break your most vital card. Indeed, in many games it is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose, but I am calling into question the sheer frequency at which that happens in this one. I've taken a look at the leaderboards and most of the builds there tend to look very similar to my own, but theirs worked out somehow while mine completely fell apart. So then, am I really making strategic decisions or am I just spinning the reels? I really can't tell. The way things play out is always inscrutable in that way. I tried with this game, but the more I played it, the less I really understood it.

> Disaster Blaster, hmm sounds interesting > Multipliers, damage, how far can I push this? > Oh, "Really?" > Let's try some new builds > But if the shot bounces, goes giant, and then duplicates, I don't even need the multiplier... > Elemental build? Sure, let's throw in a meteor shower too > Perfect, finished the game with a blaster that does 1 damage, I'm satisfied > 10/10

What if you got to pick a new Balatro joker every 5 seconds to make short programming loops to help you win an auto-battling Toejam and Earl 2: Panic on Funkotron? Interestingly, not just focused on maximum damage dealing, instead including lots of scaleable elemental effects. Jazzy little soundtrack too. Compulsively playable -- try the generous demo and you'll get a good sense of it!

10/10: I was a disaster, but I had a blast, so it's a honest game. ...REALLY!?

It is an extremely interesting game in the indie scene. You can play it either to relax and insert cards that cause chaos, or by min-maxing the damage and firing times of the blaster. It is an excellent combination for those who love to do calculations and seek the best strategy, as well as for those who prefer a game that combines chaotic visuals and explosions with the unlocking of cards, characters, planets and collectables. Give it a try, the runs are short and there are lots of challenges to try.